My how time is flying!

Dear family,

Hola again from Oaxaca Mexico!  It´s crazy how the weeks seem to be going by faster and faster, yet another cambio is halfway done, I just hope I don't get transferred this time.  But I still have 3 weeks, so I don't have to worry about that yet.  Its also crazy that so many people are leaving on their missions now!  I also read in Wes´s letter about Kevin Kerr.  I hope everything is going well for him and Wes wrote real quickly about the good news about his kidney and surgery, keep me updated please.

It´s raining right now and has rained every single day this week!  But not as hard as it did the day of the Disneyworld mototaxi ride, but on the bus over here to the Internet site we ran into the Zone Leaders, (Elder Manwaring and Romo),  and I was talking with Elder Manwaring how our almost dry clothes are now sopping wet.  They´re are all currently hanging on the roof of the building in the rain.  But he told me that in about a month or so it will really be raining hard every single day.  All the rain this week is usually pretty light, the starts hot and sunny, it rains lightly so that the humidity rises, and then the hot sun comes out to bake us some more with the humidity to help it, but it still isn't as bad as Union.  Elder Manwaring also said that the missionaries in the Istmo will be in water up to their knees when the rainy time comes, here there is lots of hills to drain the water, although the streets that do the draining become rivers.  I also forgot to mention elder Manwaring, I met him in my first area, he was in Juchitan, but a different district, but we saw each other on P-days.  His uncle is Brother Manwaring, the seminary teacher I had twice, so it really is a small world, he looks just like him and is short too, but that's okay, I loved Bro. Manwaring.  Anyway, on to the questions.

(I heard that maybe you had to do something with your visa last week.  What did you do?)

1.  Yes, it was really cool because all the Gringos in my generation went at the same time to the consulate place to sign a bunch of Visa stuff, so I got to see Elders Gotchy, Wagner, Jones, Day, and all the rest.  We were supposed to have interviews that day too, but the Pres. pushed them back to Friday, and then he pushed them back again, so I´m not sure when we will have interviews.  But it was fun to see half of my MTC district, and I enjoyed talking with them and sharing the stories that we have already culminated.  All we did was wait at the consulate for almost 4 hours just so that we could sign 7 different papers, but as a missionary, that's okay, we talked alot.  I´m only sad because every elder seems to have had a baptism but me, and I´m just a little bit sad about that.
(Did you move yet?)

2.  This is kinda frustrating, no we still haven´t moved.  We are still waiting, although yesterday we found an even better house for only 200 pesos more, so we will probably move to the new house we found if it ever will happen.  But ya, still waiting on the money to move and buy stuff for the house.

(How was the meeting with Pres. De La Cruz?)

3.  Like I said in Question number one, the interviews have been pushed back twice, so I haven´t seen Pres. De La Cruz yet, they are supposed to be this week, and so hopefully I will be able to ask permission for Monte Alban and take care of the Hymn books when the interviews happen.  I also now know that with or without hymnbooks, people in Oaxaca don't know how to sing the hymns anyway.  The singing is, quite frankly, terrible here too, but the difference is that at least the people have books and can know the words, but its hard for me to sing hymns in the wrong way.  So I´ll return from my mish an even worse singer than I was before probably.  But I´ll take care of the hymnbooks this week so that the people in Union will be able to know the words to the hymns.  I know that they will be grateful for them.  There were several members who, every time we ate with them asked Elder Jimenez and I to sing a few hymns for them so that they could try to learn how they go.
(I'm putting a package together.  Any requests?)

4.  Hmmmm... I always think of things when I´m at home hunger and in want of a snack at night, but I cant think of anything right now.  The rits bits were extremely good.  I know caramel popcorn is hard to make, so you and grandma don't need to make more, but I did really enjoy those.  And I'm not sure how your sugar cookies will hold up in a box, I dunno, I will just trust you, its more fun if the package is a surprise anyway!  Oh actually... send some Cookies and Cream bars, chocolate isn't as melty here and I can put them in the fridge if necessary.  They sell chocolate here, but I haven't found my favorite cookies and cream ones yet.
(Any baptisms, investigators?)

5.  Well... the sad news is that our three main investigators are kinda down the drain.  Raul just wont stop drinking, Alma isn't showing up to church or meetings anymore, even though she already qualifies to be baptized,  and Andres and his wife aren't coming to our appointments or to church.  All of our other new investigators haven't started to progress yet.  But, there is yet another ray of hope.  So this week holds my current contacting record of 107 doors answered by people who did more than just listen "Somos misioneros..." slam! or just yell "otro dia" through the door, we don't count those.  My daily contacting record was also made at 51 in a day.  But out of 107 contacts, we were only accepted 14 times!  So you know the difference a contact is when we can introduce who we are and talk briefly about our message and get the chance to ask them if they want to listen to us, then the person(s) accept us or reject us.  This is what we count as a contact, usually at doors or in the street or if we help them in some way, there is a lot of ways to contact, but the common is doors sadly.  If we are rejected we give them at least the opportunity to know the gospel and tell them where the church is and when we meet.  If we are accepted we teach a lesson somewhere between 5 to sometimes 30 minutes if we are lucky.  But only 14 people listened to us briefly out of 107, some of the worst contacting numbers elder Pimentel has had he says.  The people are harder here in the city than in the Istmo, but he said usually more people will listen out of that many contacts.

Anyway, we worked hard this week.  We did a lot with inactives and with our Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) plans this week as well.  With no success. But I´m hoping that the Lord will see that we are working and will bless us in some way.  And I´m hoping that we encountered a blessing for our work this week.  Yesterday we showed up to church disappointed after going for an investigator to go church with and they were gone of course.  But there was a family of 5 sitting in the Chapel that we didn't know.  We asked the Bishop and Ward Mission Leader and few others and nobody knew them.  We were also confused because as we shook their hands and greeted them (before asking around) the wife greeted us with "Hola Elderes", like she knew who we were.  But nobody else knew them.  But we talked with them and found out that the Mom in the family is an inactive member who moved to their current home 5 years ago or so, but has never gone to church for the last 7 or 8 years she said.  None of the other members in the family are members.  But apparently in February (when I was still in the MTC) the elders that were in Casablanca found this family, but only taught one of the children all of the lessons, but the dad hated the elders and before the boy could be baptized the father threatened the missionaries to never come back and teach his family or else, "there will be consequences."  But all of a sudden the whole family showed up to church yesterday, and we taught them together as a family, both parents and all three boys.  The father (Hugo) I think the father had a wake up call a month ago or so when he fell asleep at the wheel and rolled his car.  But he told us about this and about his behavior with the other missionaries and he also said that he wanted to be a better father and to start reading the scriptures and going to church.  So hopefully all will progress well.  If we plan right and everything goes smoothly, we should be able to baptize the family the last Sunday of the transfer.  The dad and two of the sons are old enough to be baptized, but they are only home on weekends because the father works in a town 2 or 3 hours away and stays there until the weekends.  But I hope that it doesn't just turn out to be another bummer.  Anyway...

(How have you been about writing in your journal?  Do you need a new one yet?)

6.  Today will be the last entry that I will be able to fit in my journal, so I´m going to be starting another one tomorrow probably.  In your first package here in Oaxaca there was that little notebook that you wrote your letter in, so I´ll probably use that.  I´ve been writing every night, it was really easy during the first transfer while in Union to write, and in the MTC, I´ll admit that when I return home tired after another day that seems similar to the days before, without any truly exciting success, its pretty hard to write, but I´ve managed to keep it up.  Elder Pimentel doesn't write, neither do the other two missionaries, and Elder Jimenez didn´t either.  That makes it kinda harder to write, but I think that I´ll be able to keep it up.

(Did you get permission to go to Monte Alban?)

7.  Like I said, we haven't met with the Mission President yet, we´ll ask when we do.  I really want to go though, and of course I will take alot of pictures to send home if it happens.  I hope that we can go on a day when its not pouring rain.  But ya... hopefully we get to go, I expected more from P-days, I know that its not like we can party or anything, but I wanted to go on hikes and see cool places like Monte Alban.  But washing by hand takes two hours every day, and the elders usually just play soccer, but at least its better than pdays in Union.

Well... that's all I can think of to say right now.  I gotta hurry if I'm gonna be able to send pics, took too much time.  I love you all!  Have a good week and I´ll talk to you next week.

Love,
Jordan


The pictures may not be in order.  But There are some pictures of my zone at the zone conference.  Our zone is called Monte Alban, so its only right that we can get permission to go right?  And then a picture of me with Pres. De La Cruz at the zone conference.  A picture of me and my comp at our apartment.  And then my favorites.  Last Friday the member that was supposed to feed us lunch gave us each 40 pesos to go eat with because he had to be working, Elder Pimentel hates when that happens cuz he doesn't like to have to find a place to eat, I feel so much better when I´m not taking members food, and I like eating somewhere different.  (Although in this situation I still feel bad cuz we took his money)  But anyway, if we come to Oaxaca as a family we will have to eat here, it´s really good.  But the food that I ordered is called a Tlayuda, it cost only 40 pesos and when its not folded in half its about the size of Brianna.  The picture doesn't do it justice I think, it was huge!  But it was extremely good!  Its two really crispy tortillas with your choice of a meat type in it, beans, tomatoes, some other veggie I don't know in the middle cut like a flower, and lots of Oaxaca cheese.  It also has a chili sauce that tastes really good and isn't extremely spicy.  But ya, it was good, and I think I may have gained a lot of weight from it, but it was worth it.  Tlayudas are a favorite food here in Oaxaca, and Oaxaca is the only place in Mexico or anywhere else I think, that you can find them.  All of the Elders from other parts of Mexico want to take Tlayudas back to their homes because they aren't made there.  Although this is the biggest Tlayuda that I have had so far here in Oaxaca.

Here is a few pics of our area.  The camera can't quite capture the true craziness of the hills and of the randomness of the houses.  I wish I could find a way to take a panoramic with my camera, but I don't think it can, even though it can do a lot of things.  Every time I´m scaling the extremely steep roads Brianna´s words echo in my mind, "This is like death!"

Anyway, while these are loading I remembered something that I wanted to ask for in the package.  I lost the USB memory that I had, I haven't seen it since Union Hidalgo, and have had the other elders on the lookout for it and have constantly been searching for it here, but I think its lost.  And I also heard of an Elder this week (while doing Visa stuff) who had his camera robbed, so I want to have something else to put pictures on just in case.  So It would be nice if you could send one of two things.  My comp and also the other two elders all put their pictures on an ipod touch, so I guess you were right when you told me that I should take mine.  they have pictures of their family's and pictures from their mission on their Ipod touches.  The Internet places here have itunes and let them put pictures on it from their cameras, and also from emails from home.  Every Monday Elder Pimentel puts pictures his fam sends in their email onto his ipod so he can look through them later.  All I´d need is the ipod and a cord to connect to the computer, and I can then delete stuff off of it and put my pics on it, and you could send me pics from home too through email.  But if you don't want to send it, could you at least send another USB drive, all I can find here are 1 or 2 gig ones, and I´m going to need one with about 8 gigs or maybe more, I´m filling up my camera more than I thought, I´m starting to take more pics, and I don't want to have a lot of different USBs.  I also found out I can record voice, so I may try to record my voice and send that to you if the email will let me.  I just don't want to have my camera stolen and lose all of the pictures I have for forever, I only have one mission.  So I think that is all I want sent, and when this last picture finishes we have to go buy things for the week at Bodega, then we have the district meeting, and at 7:00 we have a Noche de Hogar with a family, and they invited a less active member, so that's what will be happening for me today.

I love you so much!  Cant wait for another package with delicious treats! Thanks so much for the last one, there is still a few treats left that I´m enjoying, and all the silverware plate stuff was great to send, cuz all the plates are kinda gross here, and when/if we move we will actually have plates.  Thank you so much, hopefully the pictures work,  make sure Brianna is still petting Pepper for me! haha.  I love all of you and say hi to everyone for me!  Talk to you next week.

Love
Jordan